Posted on 02/09/2011 5:25:37 PM PST by Mozilla
This is a tale of two senior senators, both Republican, both up for reelection in 2012, both eager to win. And their approaches to the tea party couldnt be more different.
Six-term Sen. Orrin Hatch (R) of Utah is wooing the populist conservative movement. At a Tea Party Express town hall Tuesday night at the National Press Club, Senator Hatch said that hes very impressed by the role the tea party is playing in helping America to take back America.
Sen. Richard Lugar (R) of Indiana, also in his sixth term, is pushing back hard, telling the tea party: get real. He made the comment Monday to News Channel 15 in Fort Wayne, Ind., specifically about tea partyers opposition to the new START arms control treaty with Russia, which Senator Lugar championed. But that comment could summarize his overall attitude toward the tea party.
Lugar has not changed his eclectic voting habits since the movement burst on the scene nearly two years ago. Though a reliable GOP vote on many issues, he voted in favor of confirmation for both of President Obamas Supreme Court nominees. He opposes the ban on earmarks. He supports the DREAM Act, which would establish a path to citizenship for some young undocumented immigrants.
Hatch, on the other hand, no longer supports the DREAM Act and has backed off requests for earmarks, those little nuggets of spending for home-state projects that legislators used to brag about. He opposed the new START treaty.
Still, Hatch may have a harder time reaching the general election than Lugar, analysts say. The nomination process for the Utah Republican Party begins with a party convention, and if Hatch does not receive at least 40 percent of the vote there, his name wont appear on the GOP primary ballot.
(Excerpt) Read more at csmonitor.com ...
Why don’t these creeps ever go home? Is power that great?
That goes for Ron Paul, too.
Orin & lugar. are just two old has been fools who have been passed along far too long.
Enough of old fool RINOs
Time for less gun mint politicians
I sure like Rand Paul though. May he never “grow in office.”
I love ‘em both. But, the fact that the old man is hanging on into his 70s makes him as sick as Dole/Byrd/Thurmond, etc.
Good point. You know, I really want to retire and I have been working at that goal a long time. It seems to me that these people want to be taken feet first out of their offices at 90 or something. I don’t get it really.
It’s time for all of them to go home. They aren’t doing anyone any help by not fully opposing Obama and being around for decades. Hatch is basically another McCain type.
“Enough of old fool RINOs”
I can thing of nothing that would be more satisfying than to witness RINO Lugar get his cocky ass kicked solidly in the primary. He is truly his own best fan.
thing = think
Hatch was on Fox News a month ago and he sounded OLD and looked OLD.
As for Luger, he, obviously didn’t get the message sent in November. He’s not wanted either.
Both of these stooges have been in D.C. decades too long.
Put them out to pasture.
At least we really know what luger thinks.Hatch on the other hand is just giving us the glad hand.Smiling faces sometimes...
Addiction, pure and simple.
Agreed. I don’t trust either of them anymore.
I used to respect Hatch and Lugar years ago...not any more.
Lugar’s support for the Cuba, his positions on immigration and the DREAM Act, supporting Sotomayor out of the gate, voting for hate crimes legislation have ruined him for me.
Hatch’s proposal of the DREAM Act and the fact that he pushed the “Equal Opportunity to Govern Amendment” proved to me that he is no friend of conservatives. He also ticked me off a few decades ago when he wanted to ban “rice rockets” from American roads.
Of the two I’d take Hatch, but by a nose...a tightly pinched one at that.
You are exactly right about Hatch, The old rino sees the hand writing on the wall, he's been weighed in the balance and found wanting.
I can only hope that his constituents will see him for what he is.
LUGAR SHOULD HAVE BEEN KICKED UPSTAIRS TO THE SEC OF STATE. Hatch should have been kicked upstairs to the supreme court. U R right. They should be getting on with the next phase of their lives-planning their funerals.
LUGAR SHOULD HAVE BEEN KICKED UPSTAIRS TO THE SEC OF STATE. Hatch should have been kicked upstairs to the supreme court. U R right. They should be getting on with the next phase of their lives-planning their funerals.
Lugar is the primary, primary target for the Senate in 2012.
bump
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.